Bed bugs prompt policy changes for local non-profits

Tweaked donation policies related to the nationwide bed bug scare are starting to affect some non-profit services.

Most agencies no longer accept donated beds or mattresses to resell or provide to clients in need.

“We're holding off on mattresses because of the outbreak,” said Jill Winders, director of the North Liberty Family Resource Center. “We just didn't want that (risk) for any of our families.”

Bed bug complaints skyrocketed this year at places like Iowa State Extension and the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, which investigates allegations at businesses such as hotels.

Bed bugs are not known to transmit diseases, but bites can cause itchy red welts that can become infected. Infestations are costly to control.

The North Liberty center's Family to Family Program connects people who have furniture or other items to donate with families in need.

“A lot of families we've encountered have no beds at all,” Winders said, but the mattress moratorium will hold “until (bed bugs) are not an issue anymore.”

The Salvation Army no longer sells used mattresses in its stores in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor, said co-administrator Maj. Jan Sjogren.

Income from the 10 stores administered out of the Davenport office funds the adult rehabilitation center in Davenport, a free program for chemically dependent men. Each of the 76 people currently in the program costs $4,500 per month to treat, Sjogren said.

She said that so far, not selling mattresses has not led to any cutbacks in that program, but that could change, especially if bed bugs become an issue with other furniture.

Sjogren said the economy appears to have had a greater impact than bed bugs so far, because Iowans are holding onto their furniture longer and waiting to donate until the furniture is well-worn and less apt to easily sell.

Salvation Army strips old mattresses and uses new materials to create a low-cost mattress that is sold at its stores.

Executive Director Tim Wilson said the Willis Dady Emergency Shelter, 1247 Fourth Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids, changed its policies after the Iowa City Shelter House spent about $7,000 this year to control a bed bug infestation likely tied to a donated couch.

Willis Dady no longer accepts donated chairs and couches and is replacing 16 wooden bunk beds with metal beds, with the help of a grant. Like the Iowa City shelter, residents are now required to launder their clothes before staying, Wilson said.

Bob Crawford, president of St. Vincent de Paul, said the store at 928 Seventh St. SE in Cedar Rapids no longer accepts beds or mattresses for resale. The society also stopped providing used mattresses to people in need.

Crawford said St. Vincent de Paul directed those people to a program at Lebeda Mattress in Marion, but that program also has been terminated.

Lebeda sales manager Todd Petersen said the company, which manufactures new mattresses, discontinued its free mattress program in light of the bed bug scare.

The free mattresses were quality used mattresses that Lebeda workers picked up from homes where new mattresses were delivered and were stored in a trailer at its Marion site, he said.

“People could take whatever they needed,” Petersen said, noting that used mattresses are now taken to the landfill.

Goodwill Stores continue to sell used mattresses, spokeswoman Dana Engelbert said.

“We're so careful about what we do accept,” she said. “We're always looking for signs of those things. Bed bugs are the latest.”

Donors who have had bed bug problems or other issues are asked not to leave items at Goodwill, which must pay for disposal.

Malinda Finley, 58, and Sharon Jeffries, 64, both of Marion, perused a Goodwill Store last week but didn't plan to buy furniture. Both are more concerned about bed bugs in hotels and take precautions when they buy used items, such as immediately laundering clothes.

“If you're cautious and do everything you have to do, you should be OK,” Finley said.